This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-277822, filed Sep. 13, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device using a ferroelectric film, and particularly relates to a semiconductor memory device having a highly integrated memory cell.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, a semiconductor memory is utilized in many electronic devices such as a main memory in a large-sized computer, a personal computer, home electric products, a portable telephone and the like. As kinds of semiconductors, a volatile DRAM (Dynamic RAM), a SRAM (Static RAM), a nonvolatile MROM (Mask ROM), a flash EEPROM and the like are listed.
Particularly, although DRAM is a volatile memory, DRAM is excellent in that DRAM is manufactured at low cost, the area of a cell of a DRAM is small in size as xc2xc of that of a SRAM, and a high-speed operation is capable in DRAM compared with a flash EEPROM. Therefore, DRAM occupies almost all share of the market.
A rewritable nonvolatile flash EEPROM has an advantage in a point that data of the rewritable nonvolatile flash EEPROM is not erased even if the electric source is turned off. However, in the case of this flash EEPROM, the number of times of rewriting (number of times of Write/Erase) achieves only on the order of 106. Besides this, there are several defaults that it takes longer, i.e., a few micro seconds to write when compared with that of a DRAM, and further, it requires a high voltage (12V to 22V) to write. Therefore, the scale of the market of flash EEPROM is not large compared with that of DRAM.
In contrast, a nonvolatile ferroelectric memory using a ferroelectric capacitor has been proposed in 1980. This ferroelectric memory is nonvolatile, besides that, this type of ferroelectric memory has advantages that the number of times of rewriting achieves as many as on the order of 1012, a speed of the read/write time is a high speed on the order of the speed of a DRAM and further it can be operated at 3V to 5V. Therefore, in the future, there will be a possibility that all of the memory is replaced by this ferroelectric memory, and every manufacturer carries out the development of it.
FIG. 14A shows a general ferroelectric memory, a configuration of a memory cell consisting of one transistor and one capacitor, and a cell array. A memory cell configuring a ferroelectric memory is constituted of a cell transistor 100 and a ferroelectric capacitor 101. These are connected in series. A cell array is constituted of bit lines BL, /BL for reading out data, word line WL0, WL1 for selecting a cell transistor, plate line PL0, PL1 for driving one end of the ferroelectric capacitor 101.
However, the ferroelectric memory as shown in FIG. 14B is a folded bit line configuration in which one memory cell 102 is arranged at two intersections of a word line and a bit line. Therefore, suppose that each wiring width and a space between wirings is F, the minimum cell size is calculated by the formula of
2Fxc3x974F=8F2.
Moreover, FIG. 14C shows a sectional structure of a cell array corresponding to that in FIG. 14B.
Thus, as for a ferroelectric memory, there has been a problem that its cell size is limited to 8F2 and the size is large the same as that of DRAM.
Moreover, as to a ferroelectric memory, it is necessary to divide a plate line for each word line and to be individually driven. This is because it prevents the destruction of electronic polarization information of a ferroelectric capacitor configuring non-select cell. Furthermore, a plurality of ferroelectric capacitors is connected to an individual plate line of a ferroelectric memory in a direction of the word line. Therefore, the load capacity of a plate line is large. In addition, it is necessary to arrange a plate line drive circuit at a pitch equal to a pitch of the word line. Therefore, it is difficult to enlarge the area for arranging a plate line drive circuit, and the size of the plate line drive circuit cannot be enlarged. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 14D, a delay time at the time when the potential of a plate line is raised and lowered is on the order of 30 to 100 ns, and this delay time is longer than the delay time at the time when the potential of a word line is raised and lowered. As a result, there has been a problem that the operation is delayed.
In order to solve the problem, the inventor has proposed a new ferroelectric memory which can satisfy and be compatible with three points of (1) a small, 4F2-sized memory cell, (2) a flat transistor which is easily manufactured, and (3) a high-speed random access function having general versatility in U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,492 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,151,242 (the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety).
FIG. 15A shows a configuration of a ferroelectric memory described in the related patent of the present invention described above. In FIG. 15A, a unit cell is constituted of a cell transistor (T) and a ferroelectric capacitor (C). The both ends of ferroelectric capacitor (C) are connected between the source and drain of the cell transistor (T), respectively. A plurality of unit cells are connected in series and configured into a memory cell block.
One end of each memory cell block is connected to bit lines BL, and /BL via a block selection transistor, the other end is connected to plate lines PL and /PL.
With this configuration, a memory cell of the minimum size of 4F2 can be realized by using a flat transistor. At the time of standby, all the word lines WL0 to WL7 are made to be xe2x80x9cHxe2x80x9d level, and the memory cell transistor is turned on. Furthermore, block selection signals BS0, BS1 are made to be xe2x80x9cLxe2x80x9d level, and the memory transistor is turned off. By doing so, both ends of a ferroelectric capacitor are electrically short-circuited by the cell transistor being turned on. Therefore, the potential difference is not occurred between both ends of the ferroelectric capacitor, and the memory polarization is stably maintained.
At the time of being active, only cell transistors connected in parallel to a ferroelectric capacitor from which data should be read out is turned off, and a block selection transistor is turned on. For example, in the case where the ferroelectric capacitor C1 is selected, as shown in FIG. 15B, the word line WL6 is made to be xe2x80x9cLxe2x80x9d level.
Subsequently, the plate line /PL at the capacitor C1 side is made to be xe2x80x9cHxe2x80x9d, the block selection signal BS0 at the capacitor C1 side is made to be xe2x80x9cHxe2x80x9d level. By doing so, the potential difference between plate line /PL and bit line /BL is applied only to both ends of the ferroelectric capacitors C1 which are connected in series to the memory cell transistor being in an OFF state. Therefore, the polarization information of the ferroelectric capacitor C1 is read out to the bit line /BL.
Therefore, by connecting unit cells in series and selecting an arbitrary word line, cell information of an arbitrary ferroelectric capacitor can be read out, and a complete random access can be realized. Moreover, since the plate line can be shared with a plurality of unit cells, the arrangement region of a plate line can be reduced so that the size of a chip can be reduced. Therefore, there is no limitation that the pitch of the plate line drive circuit must be equal to the pitch of the word line. Therefore, the area of a plate line drive circuit (PL Driver) can be increased and a high-speed operation can be realized by increasing the drive capacity.
FIG. 16A shows a sectional view of a part of a memory cell shown in FIG. 15A, and shows an example of an ideal structure. A ferroelectric capacitor having a bottom electrode BE, a ferroelectric film FE, and a top electrode TE is arranged directly above the memory cell transistor in which a word line WL serves as a gate. With such a configuration, as shown in FIG. 16B, a memory cell can be arranged at each one intersection of a word line and a bit line.
As shown in FIG. 16A, the top electrode (TE) is connected to a cell wiring M1, the cell wiring M1 is connected to source and drain terminals AA via a contact cAA-M1. At this time, if the path between the contact cAA-M1 and the ferroelectric capacitor is formed in a self-alignment manner, and the ferroelectric capacitor is configured at the minimum size of
Fxc3x97F=F2,
the minimum memory cell having a size of 4F2 can be realized. In this case, since the contact cAA-M1 is formed in a self-alignment manner with respect to the ferroelectric capacitor, a space F between wirings is not required.
A semiconductor memory device shown in FIGS. 16A and 16B has the following subjects.
First, it is technically difficult that the contact cAA-M1 described above is formed in a self-alignment manner with respect to the ferroelectric capacitor. Therefore, as a result, as shown in FIG. 16C, the necessity is generated that the distance between the contact cAA-M1 and the ferroelectric capacitor is kept on the order of the length F which is defined in the minimum design rule.
Moreover, in order to form a stopper made of SiN or the like for the self alignment, it is required to be treated at a high temperature. However, after a ferroelectric capacitor is formed, in the case where a stopper made of SiN or the like is formed at a high temperature treatment, the performance of the ferroelectric capacitor is deteriorated. Therefore, it is difficult to treat at a high temperature, and it has been technically difficult to form a contact cAA-M1 in a self-alignment manner with respect to the ferroelectric capacitor.
Second, it is difficult to form a ferroelectric capacitor having a size of F2 described above. This is because: (a) it is easily damaged when the ferroelectric capacitor is formed when the size of a ferroelectric capacitor is reduced. As a result, the polarization capacity of the ferroelectric capacitor is deteriorated; (b) the ferroelectric capacitor uses Pt, Ir, Sr, Ru and the like as an electrode material. It is difficult to reduce the size of the capacitor because it is difficult to process these materials.
FIG. 16D shows a plan view of a memory cell in the case where the distance between the contact cAA-M1 and the ferroelectric capacitor is long, and the area of the ferroelectric capacitor is larger than F2 (in this case, 3Fxc3x973F=9F2). In the horizontal direction in FIG. 16D, the distance between the contact cAA-M1 and the ferroelectric capacitor is long. In addition, the size of the capacitor is enlarged also in the vertical direction in FIG. 16D. Therefore, the size of a cell is enlarged. In the horizontal direction in FIG. 16D, the distance between the contact cAA-M1 and the ferroelectric capacitor is the sum of the width F of the contact and the spaces F of the respective right and left side spaces of the contact. Therefore, this distance is represented by 3F.
At this time, the distance Fxe2x80x2 between both of contacts cAA-M1 adjacent to each other in the vertical direction also becomes longer when compared with the minimum distance F of FIG. 16B. Therefore, a dead space of the interval between both contacts is produced. As a result, the size of the cell is further enlarged. In this example, Fxe2x80x2=3F is established, and a dead space exists with a large area of
2Fxc3x973F=6F2
in FIG. 16D as compared with that in FIG. 16B.
Thus, the size of the ferroelectric capacitor of the ferroelectric memory becomes larger than the ideal size, in the case where the distance between the capacitor and the contact is apart, there has been a problem that a dead space is produced at the interval between the contacts and the size of the cell becomes still large.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor memory device comprising: a first and second memory cells which are adjacently arranged, the first and second memory cells each having a cell transistor and a ferroelectric capacitor connected in parallel to the cell transistor, the ferroelectric capacitor having a bottom electrode, a top electrode and a ferroelectric film provided between these bottom and top electrodes, and the cell transistor having a source and drain terminals; a first contact provided between the bottom electrode of the ferroelectric capacitor and one side of the source and drain terminals of the cell transistor; a wiring having a first and second ends, the first end connected to the top electrode of the ferroelectric capacitor; and a second contact provided between the second end of the wiring and another side of the source and drain terminals of the cell transistor, the second contact being arranged at a position offset in the perpendicular direction with respect to the array direction of the memory cells located between the memory cells.